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The Adventure

Bugaboos inaugural High Flying Adventure program

Between the areas of CMH Summer Adventures, friendly competition is a healthy tradition. From the beginning of Canadian Mountain Holiday’s summer program, in the 1970s, we realized that in many ways there was nobody else to compete with other than ourselves.

Nobody else was taking people hiking in the alpine zone using a helicopter for transportation.

Nobody else was providing a full spa, gourmet kitchen, and professional guides so deep in North America’s vast wilderness.

So when it the CMH Bobbie Burns guides built the Mt. Nimbus Via Ferrata, the most extensive via ferrata in North America, and combined it with the Conrad Glacier Adventure Hike for the Bobbie Burns High Flying Adventure, there was only one other place that stood a chance of stepping up to the Bobbie Burns' accessible adventure standard: CMH Bugaboos.

Two years ago the Bugaboos guides opened their Skyladder Via Ferrata, so the unique European flavor mountain adventure is now available in both areas. But the Bugaboos team felt another adventure, also one that didn’t require the technical skill of rock climbing and mountaineering, was waiting amongst the lofty spires and friendly glaciers of the Bugaboos.

Few places on earth allow for such mellow glacier travel as the Columbia Mountains, so it didn’t take long for the CMH Guides to realize that a day of non-technical glacier travel would be the perfect accompaniment to the via ferrata.

The combination of the Skyladder Via Ferrata and the Bugaboos Glacier Trek was sampled by dozens of CMH guests this summer, and the result is unanimous: it rocks. So starting in 2013, the Bugaboos High Flying adventure is game on.

The technically easy nature of both the via ferrata and the Glacier Trek makes it accessible to anyone with the desire, and enough fitness to spend most of a day hiking. On the via ferrata, harnesses are worn, and double leashes are attached to cables to provide redundant safety systems, but metal rungs are fastened to the rock so even the blankest sections are made easy. On the Glacier Trek, the glaciers are mellow enough that the rope is almost unnecessary, but is still worn as a safety precaution. Crampons, short metal spikes, are worn on your boots and make walking on ice about as tricky as a walk in the park. Ice axes are also used, but only as a glorified walking stick. Some trekkers on the easiest routes use trekking poles instead of ice axes.

All equipment is provided by CMH, and whatever you need to know will be explained by your guide as needed. No training is required or needed.

Everyone who went out this summer had a fantastic time. Somet groups scrambled onto viewpoints and summits near the glacier’s edge, and every group returned to the lodge for full indulgence in the kind of comfort that mountaineers can only dream of.

From experienced adventure travellers, to people who had never even wanted to climb a mountain, everyone who sampled the Bugaboos High Flying Adventure this summer was thoroughly blown away.

Imagine getting to sail between tropical islands without having to learn to sail, or to play in an orchestra without having to learn an instrument - or experiencing the heart of the mountain environment without having to learn technical climbing skills.

This is the magic of the most exciting and accessible new summer travel program on the planet. But don’t take our word for it: give it a try.